For whatever reason, it has become tradition for the second film in a franchise to be “the dark one,” but it seems that at least one potential project will look to reverse that trend in a major way.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Mel Gibson and Braveheart scribe Randall Wallace are working on a sequel to The Passion of the Christ, which will focus on the story of Jesus’ resurrection. That should be slightly more uplifting than watching someone suffer for the sins of humanity for 2-plus hours.
Wallace reportedly revealed the news “reluctantly,” saying that it had become too difficult to keep it under wraps. He recently worked with Gibson on the World War II drama Hacksaw Ridge, and says the pair got serious about this project during the production of that film. Though nothing is official as of yet, it certainly sounds like both men have more than just a passing interest in making this happen.
Given the controversy over what many believed to be antisemitism in the previous film — and the unambiguously antisemitic comments Gibson made during his 2006 DUI arrest — it will be interesting to see how the public reacts to this project.
Criticism notwithstanding, The Passion of the Christ was an extremely successful and lucrative film. According to Box Office Mojo, it took home a whopping $612 million against a budget of just $30 million and, somewhat ironically, is still the highest-grossing R-rated film of all time. Those sort of numbers suggest that this film will probably get made, and that it could very well be a big-time success. That said, this is Hollywood, where a lot of people work on a lot of things that never see the light of day.
Be sure to stay tuned and we’ll let you know if/when this project moves forward.
